Sidecar Crush

But being invisible had started to eat at me after a while. More than once, I’d wondered if I just wandered off and left home, how long it would take before anyone would notice. I couldn’t count the number of times I’d looked at those posters with Callie’s face, pretty sure if it had been me, they’d never have been made.

“Hi, there.”

The woman’s voice startled me from my thoughts. I looked over to see Maisie Miller standing at the bar next to me.

“Pardon me,” I said. “Afraid I wasn’t paying attention.”

“Sorry about that.” She held out her hand. “I’m Maisie.”

“Jameson Bodine,” I said, shaking her hand. “Pleasure to meet you.”

Her smile widened. “You really are from West Virginia, aren’t you?”

“Born and raised.”

I glanced around, but didn’t see Brock. I wondered if I was supposed to be talking to Maisie, or if all that mattered now that the show was done and the press wasn’t around. Wasn’t sure why she was talking to me, either. Reckoned she was just being friendly.

“Have you been to L.A. before?”

“I haven’t,” I said. “I’ve been a fair few places on the East Coast, but never out west.”

“What do you think so far?”

“It’s… different.”

She laughed a little and nodded slowly. “I’m sure it is.”

Something seemed to catch her eye and her smile faded. My eyes darted in the direction she was looking, and I saw Leah Mae and Brock standing together, talking.

My back clenched all over again. They were standing close, talking with a certain familiarity. Granted, they’d spent two months filming a show together, so a bit of friendliness didn’t mean anything. But I didn’t like the way he was looking at her, and truth be told, I liked the way she was smiling back at him even less.

Maisie didn’t appear to be any happier about it than I was. Her lips pressed together in a thin line and a flicker of emotion passed across her features. I only caught a glimpse of it before she took a breath and smiled at me again. But now her smile looked forced.

The bartender put our drinks out, and she grabbed her martini. Took a sip.

“It was nice to meet you,” she said. “Good luck.”

“Nice to meet you, too,” I said, but she was already walking away.

I picked up my whiskey, and Leah Mae’s gin and tonic, and moved in her direction. She was still talking to Brock, but Maisie had found someone else in the crowd to speak to.

Just before I reached them, Brock stepped in and hugged Leah Mae. Her back was to me, so I couldn’t see her face, but he smiled and said he’d see her later.

I stepped up next to her and leveled Brock with a hard stare. I wasn’t the jealous type, but this was the guy she’d supposedly slept with. A guy who had a wife in this very room. He needed to move the fuck on.

Brock didn’t acknowledge my existence any more than the rest of the people here. He just walked away, heading in the direction of his wife.

“You didn’t have to glare at him,” Leah Mae said, taking her drink from my hand.

“I wasn’t glaring.”

She smiled. “Yes, you were.”

“He was being a little too friendly, is all.”

Her brow knitted together, like she didn’t understand. “We were just talking.”

I let it drop and swallowed back half my whiskey. The burn of it felt familiar—the only thing I recognized in this place. I’d expected to be uncomfortable. Worked myself up to it and thought I’d been prepared. But there was a discomfort of a different sort that had taken root in my gut, and I wasn’t sure what to do about it.

Maisie Miller caught my eye again, standing next to Brock in that bright red dress. She was looking up at him with the same look she’d had before, when we’d been standing at the bar. A look that said exactly what I was feeling, and I reckoned she was thinking the same as me, too.

What had happened between Leah Larkin and Brock Winston on that show?

I’d never asked. I’d seen the way they were settin’ it up in the early episodes, but after that, I hadn’t watched. Sort of felt like a betrayal to Leah Mae, even before we’d been seein’ each other. So I’d avoided the show. I’d heard things second hand—from people around town, a few articles I’d bothered to read, and the little bit that Leah Mae had told me.